lrh
Senior Retro Guru
An unplanned first project. As far as I can tell this is the first 20" 89 model to appear on the site, only the 3rd in original Spearmint. But unlike other owners I wasn't looking for one and didn't have one BITD.
Retiring my Claud Butler in the spring rekindled my interest in old bikes and first I stumbled upon a mint Klein I'd lusted after in 1997/98. That was a non-project unless you count touching up paint chips.
I still wanted an older rigid steel bike so I kept searching for project/parts bikes. eBay is a non-starter in my area because nothing goes cheap or under the radar. One Sunday morning I was browsing Gumtree for anything badly-advertised and something made me click a generic "Mountain Bike" advert, probably the decent side-on picture.
To my surprise I immediately spotted a Deore rear mech, crank, thumbshifters and twin U-brakes. I'd seen some of the Trekker projects on here so I knew exactly what it was. It was sprayed black with Scott stickers but it was dirt cheap and had to be good for a few parts at least.
It looked worse in the flesh and was barely rideable so I quickly stripped it down. Surprisingly under the grime and overspray was an original and low-mileage bike with only the saddle/grips/tyres/chain changed. So change of plan, I decided to build it back up re-using all the factory parts. Also the frame looked a touch small for me so I didn't want to throw money at it only to split it or pass it on.
Paint stripper shifted the black paint leaving mostly intact powder-coat. The pics are very flattering though, the paint is peeling, scratched, and flat.
The cranks were rubbed/faded so I decided to polish them. Mr Muscle took hours to shift the black anodising but after that it was 100, 400, 600, 800 wet & dry, then T-Cut/Polish. They're far from perfect but I wasn't going for mirror finish. The tatty brake levers got a similar treatment. The seatpost got a quick sanding but it's now pretty loose... The big/ugly quick release has been swapped for a bolt to help hold it in place.
The 135mm rear axle seems a squeeze for the frame, the nominal distance between the drop outs is 130mm. Also why did they fit short cage rear mechs? Finding a chain length that lets you use all 21 gears seems impossible. I wasted a lot of time refurbing the Exage Mountain pedals to find there's no way to get the left cone/locknut tight enough without special tools. They weigh a ton as well (520g a pair) so they've been ditched.
So here's the end result with only new tyres/pedals. Saddle/grips/chain/SharkFin came off my Claud Butler and I stuck a lighter Ritchey handlebar on to avoid scratching the original... Hard to believe it's mostly the same bike above!
Only taken it for a few shakedown runs so far but first impression was it's a bit of a tank! Those high-mounted U's make it feel a bit top heavy. It fits me better than I expected but the ride is quite stiff compared to my lugged 501 'Butler, even with the same comfy saddle.
Retiring my Claud Butler in the spring rekindled my interest in old bikes and first I stumbled upon a mint Klein I'd lusted after in 1997/98. That was a non-project unless you count touching up paint chips.
I still wanted an older rigid steel bike so I kept searching for project/parts bikes. eBay is a non-starter in my area because nothing goes cheap or under the radar. One Sunday morning I was browsing Gumtree for anything badly-advertised and something made me click a generic "Mountain Bike" advert, probably the decent side-on picture.
To my surprise I immediately spotted a Deore rear mech, crank, thumbshifters and twin U-brakes. I'd seen some of the Trekker projects on here so I knew exactly what it was. It was sprayed black with Scott stickers but it was dirt cheap and had to be good for a few parts at least.
It looked worse in the flesh and was barely rideable so I quickly stripped it down. Surprisingly under the grime and overspray was an original and low-mileage bike with only the saddle/grips/tyres/chain changed. So change of plan, I decided to build it back up re-using all the factory parts. Also the frame looked a touch small for me so I didn't want to throw money at it only to split it or pass it on.
Paint stripper shifted the black paint leaving mostly intact powder-coat. The pics are very flattering though, the paint is peeling, scratched, and flat.
The cranks were rubbed/faded so I decided to polish them. Mr Muscle took hours to shift the black anodising but after that it was 100, 400, 600, 800 wet & dry, then T-Cut/Polish. They're far from perfect but I wasn't going for mirror finish. The tatty brake levers got a similar treatment. The seatpost got a quick sanding but it's now pretty loose... The big/ugly quick release has been swapped for a bolt to help hold it in place.
The 135mm rear axle seems a squeeze for the frame, the nominal distance between the drop outs is 130mm. Also why did they fit short cage rear mechs? Finding a chain length that lets you use all 21 gears seems impossible. I wasted a lot of time refurbing the Exage Mountain pedals to find there's no way to get the left cone/locknut tight enough without special tools. They weigh a ton as well (520g a pair) so they've been ditched.
So here's the end result with only new tyres/pedals. Saddle/grips/chain/SharkFin came off my Claud Butler and I stuck a lighter Ritchey handlebar on to avoid scratching the original... Hard to believe it's mostly the same bike above!
Only taken it for a few shakedown runs so far but first impression was it's a bit of a tank! Those high-mounted U's make it feel a bit top heavy. It fits me better than I expected but the ride is quite stiff compared to my lugged 501 'Butler, even with the same comfy saddle.